Caught between a rock and a “biased” textbook, the School Board was forced to rule on spending $100,000 or putting up with sub-par information.
School Board member Dan Castimore says with the budget under increasing pressure, they had to find a compromise for the 8th grade U.S. history text…
Castimore: “It was decided to approve continuing to use the book, given that the District would provide additional resources to the teachers on inaccuracies or various “biases” but also to direct the Administration to work top remove the book or to replace it as soon as possible.”
Fellow Board Member Penny Vadla, a former English teacher, started reading the textbook when parents called about concerns the books emphasized a Republican Christian perspective…
Vadla: “And I found inaccuracies mostly in the beginning and mostly in the end, but they were interspersed throughout the book in relation to the commandments, in relation to Martin Luther King [Jr.]. The only mention they have of Kennedy, John F. Kennedy is that he was assassinated. Five words and then they go right into Lyndon B. Johnson, who is also a Democrat, but he’s from Texas.”
The Texan angle proved to have some foundation…
Vadla: “Publishing companies, if they live in Texas, or they live in New England, or wherever they live can send a specific book because that is the political leaning in that area, which personally I find to be really reprehensible. I think they should put the facts out and only the facts and not slant information so they can encourage kids to believe one way or the other.”
The 100 texts which contained an extra epilogue and prologue were meant for students in Texas.
A literature review committee found the book to be generally unbiased, with 18% of statements Democrat-leaning and 36% Republican leaning while the remaining statements were neutral.
The books with the extra sections will be exchanged for the texts originally ordered.
